It doesn't take too long, but you will need a rubber hammer, something which they don't tell you, but if you don't have it, there's no way really you're going to be able to squeeze all the pins into the holes. More on that to follow.

Well, once you bought it and got it home, assemble it.

Here are the illustrated instructions:

Take the top piece with the round arches, and put the smaller shelf and one of the bigger ones into it. The shelves have overlapping lips that go over the side bars.

The shelves also have these pins that must go into holes in the side pieces. This can be very, very hard to do by hand. It is here where a rubber hammer will come in really handy, as well as a second person who can help hold the pieces so the pins are over the holes.

Carefully tap everything into place with the rubber hammer. But make sure it's rubber now or you'll break the plastic.

Now:

Do the same thing with the remaining pieces; that is put the shelves into the side supports, both with the overlapping lips and with the pins into the holes. You may need to bend the shelves into place a bit. Just hammer the pins in again with the rubber hammer.

And finally:

Put the top piece that you have assembled, onto the bottom piece. The poles should slide right in and then click. Well, they don't slide in easily, but since you have your rubber hammer, you can just tap everything into place until it clicks.

Viola! You have your shelf, not too ugly a thing. Actually it's very ugly if you don't have anything on it, because all you see is mesh.

But, simply place things on it so that all you see is the decorative sides, and all is looking purdey.